(Click HERE to access Student Course & Guideline Catalog, pp, 27-30.)
The following languages are offered in grades 7-12 for the 2009-2010 school year.
| Middle School | Languages | Middle School | Languages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Elk Ridge |
|
South Jordan |
|
|
Fort Herriman |
|
Sunset Ridge |
|
|
Joel P. Jensen |
|
West Hills |
|
|
Oquirrh Hills |
|
West Jordan |
|
|
South Hills |
|
High School |
Languages | High School | Languages | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bingham |
|
Riverton |
|
||
Copper Hills |
|
West Jordan |
|
In connection with two other districts in the Salt Lake Valley, Jordan District has begun the process of creating curriculum maps for each language that will align to our new state standards (which are based on ACTFL’s national standards) and provide a unified pacing guide for each language level.
The purpose of these maps is to:
Provide a detailed plan that will guide teachers through the content and ensure that all national standards are covered.
Help teachers determine their own course of action with the end in mind and better pace the year.
Provide a sequence for delivering content and a clear scope for what must be taught to all students. The maps delineate the minimum that needs to be met notwithstanding whether the level is taught in the junior high or high school.
Allow teachers to review the curriculum to check for unnecessary redundancies, inconsistencies, misalignments, weaknesses, and gaps.
Provide vertical alignment across the levels. With performance indicators in place for each of the 5 C’s, teachers will know what students should know and be able to do by the end of each level.
As you look at the maps, notice how they are set up. The focus is not on the grammar (called “essential structures” in the map). Although we all know that grammatical structures are important, we don’t want students to study for multiple years only to come out of our programs saying “I have had 4 years of French and I don’t know a thing! I can conjugate any verb in any tense but have no idea how to speak or even use what I have learned.” We have all heard this rhetoric countless times. To avoid this and help produce more fluent speakers, the focus of the maps is on performance. Everything is designed around performance indicators in all 5 C’s. Instead of starting with “I want my students to know X grammar” and moving to “What can I have the students do with it afterwards?”, we start with “What do I want my students to be able to do with the language?” and move to “What grammar do I need to teach in order to support this end?” Thus the focus is on the thematic content and how we can help our students perform in those areas.